Since Teresa started back to school last year she hasn't had the time to update our blog. Teresa has given me the responsibility to keep the family blog updated. The family had a great time traveling around Europe this last year. We have been able to visit Germany, France, Scotland, and different area around England.

Family snowboard trip in the Bavarian Alps

Scouting trip to Normandy

Family at Loch Ness

Family trip to Scotland

Family Trip to London

Hoopes New Year's Eve Celebration starts with the Traditional Sparkling Cider in Yet Another Country... Germany!

This year we celebrated New Year's Eve as usual starting with Sparkling Cider and continuing with our "Stuff Your Face" party but this year it was held in billeting at Ramstein AFB, Germany! Next year we hope to welcome in 2009 celebrating in Paris!

Rottenburg

The little town of Rottenburg is one of the last towns in Germany to have a wall with watch towers surrounding it. The kids found a photo opp. in front of one of the watch towers. They loved imagining they were knights protecting their village.

Ice skating fun in the town of Heidleberg. At first the kids were a bit timid but after just a few minutes they were pros. I can't say that much for myself though!

Heidleberg Castle

The Heidleberg Castle was an amazing structure, this is only one part of it. The architecture was unbeliveable .

We stopped at this fun store that was full of traditional German Christmas items such as nut crackers, smoking things, and wooden ornaments. It's referred to as the Disney Land of German Christmas items, which it truly was. We picked up a few fun items while there. This was the largest nut cracker we saw, needless to say it wasn't for sale as the kids hoped it was.

This is a look out tower at the Heidleberg Castle. The town of Heidleberg can be seen in the background. The Heidleberg castle was part of our week long trip to Germany.